Christmas Day Memories

It’s special to play on Christmas Day.Everyone’s watching, it’s obviously on national TV, and they don’t put you on if you suck. There have been some great games, even greater performances, and some classic NBA moments. Without further ado, NBA Christmas memories:- Wilt Chamberlain claims he had close to 25 blocks on Christmas Day ’68 at Phoenix. And it’s not like Wilt embellishes anything, right? If he says he had 25 blocks, he had 25 blocks. He probably had 40 boards too.- For no other reason than it was his second national TV game, but Pete Maravich and the Hawks traveled to Phoenix in ’70 during his rookie year for the Christmas Day game. Pistol hit for 28, including several very tough shots; it’s a game they always show on NBA TV and more importantly, one of a precious few complete games of this genius in sneakers in existence.- Perhaps my favorite. Bernard King hit for 60 points in ’84 on the Nets, including 40 by halftime and basically getting half the New Jersey roster in foul trouble in the process. Honestly, the Nets tried at least – at least – six guys on him the first half, but this of course was during the 13-month stretch (from Feb. 1 ’84 to late March ’85) when you simply couldn’t guard King, it couldn’t be done. In a related item, Michael Ray Richardson hit for 36 and the Nets completed a mighty comeback to steal this classic 120-114.- Just a year later on the very same MSG floor that King just cremated, the ’86 Celtics, arguably the greatest team ever, played the lowly Knicks and their rookie Patrick Ewing. It was really what the game represented that was memorable; Boston used this bad loss (they let a 25-point lead slip and lost) to wake up and destroy the rest of the league, winning 43 of their next 49 games en route to the title. Bird shot 9-for-27, actually decided to quit drinking booze for the rest of the year (true story), and ignored the early-season back pain to abuse all-comers from that point on as he won his third straight MVP.- In the summer of ’86, Philly gave away (this is not an exaggeration) Moses Malone to Washington, so the league, ever so sensitive to these type of things (read: Kobe vs. Shaq) decided to give Moses a nice X-Mas gift: A chance to abuse his former employers on National TV on Christmas Day. So that’s just what he did. 28 points and 21 boards later, Big Mo rode out of the old Spectrum a winner.- Although not a memorable game, it’s actually the first I remember watching. As a thirteen year-old, I was lucky enough to be allowed stay up to watch the 11:30pm rebroadcast of the Pistons-Bulls game from ’96. You see, this is Australia and we don’t care about the NBA, hence the crazy programmed time. All I remember is a big game from Pippen, MJ good as ever, a young Grant Hill running the point, a funky camera angle from NBC and an Otis Thorpe jam over Jason Caffey that was simply a beautiful thing.- I was actually there in person; the first matchup for the Kings and Lakers since their epic WCF in ’02. Actually, they had played once in the interim: a preseason game in LA where Rick Fox and Doug Christie exchanged punches, which actually re-ignited in the exit tunnel, only to be broken up by a street-clothed Shaq. Anyway, this X-Mas day game was a dandy, I distinctly remember being captivated by Peja Stojakovic – when he was good and healthy – and his jump-shooting, and by Chris Webber and a particularly nice behind-the-back dime. Plus, the Kings won and more appropriately, I witnessed a fist fight in the car park between – you guessed it – a Lakers fan and a Kings fan. Good times.- 2003: LeBron vs T-Mac. That’s right, a young LBJ (actually his rookie year) at a time when I was still excited-but-skeptical about his game. Anyway, he dropped 34, won me over forever, and dueled McGrady (41 points) in an exciting and high-scoring game. At the time, T-Mac was the league’s leading scorer and one of the best in the game, but honestly, to compare him to James now is almost an insult to the King. Oh, how times have changed.- In ’05, Shaq and Kobe played for the first time since their, for lack of a better word, divorce. Anyway, watching the game I had this sick feeling in my stomach that Kobe would catch Shaq off-guard and dunk on him. Funnily enough, anytime that was even a remote possibility, Shaq would foul him as he was to jump. As a result, Shaq fouled out, Kobe dropped 42, and it was up to D-Wade to save the day. He hit several big shots in overtime – including a sick left-handed banker – as the Heat escaped with a win.